Harold Handley (1957-1961).

Harold Handley, like Governor Craig, was born in 1909. Unlike Craig, he was raised in LaPorte. He went to the public schools there before going to IU in Bloomington where Craig and future Senator Jenner were also students. After IU, he went to work with his father as a salesman, but that was in 1932, so the Depression made sales tough. During a stretch of unemployment, he got into politics, forming the Young Republicans club in his county and unsuccessfully running for the state Senate. In 1940, he was elected to the Indiana Senate during a strong Republican year and worked with his colleagues to try to roll back some of the legislation implemented during the Democratic domination of the 1930s and to reorganize state government in an effort to wrestle away power from the governor.

In 1941, when the U.S. got involved in World War II, Handley resigned his position as senator and enlisted. He was assigned to a training unit and remained in the United States despite requests to be transferred. At the end of the war, he had risen to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He married a woman who lived near his base and, after the war, they moved back to LaPorte where he resumed his career in sales. In 1948, he was re-elected to his former Senate seat and became re-acquainted with U.S. Senator William Jenner. In 1952, Craig was a darkhorse candidate that won the Republican nomination for governor in spite of the party leadership. Jenner and other party leaders were able to get Handley nominated as lieutenant governor.

William Jenner

Jenner seems to have been a dominant figure in Indiana politics during this time. (For some reason, he puts me in mind of Senator Jesse Bright — the Senator from Indiana dominant in the 1850s who caused a rift in the Indiana Democrats and was ejected from the U.S. Senate after he introduced an arms dealer to Jefferson Davis.) Jenner was born in 1908, and, as mentioned before, he was at college with Craig and Handley. He got his law degree and practiced for a time in Paoli and Shoals, Indiana. He was elected to the state Senate in 1934 (at the age of 26) and served there until World War II. In 1942, he resigned his seat to serve in the war as part of the Air Corps. He was discharged in 1944 and — for a few weeks — served as U.S. Senate in the seat left vacant by the death of Frederick Van Nuys. In 1945, Jenner became the state Republican chairman. And, in 1946, he was elected to the U.S. Senate in his own right.

Jenner was apparently not too bothered by General MacArthur’s insubordination to President Truman and was given to conspiracy theories. When Truman fired MacArthur, Jenner said, “I charge that this country today is in the hands of a secret inner coterie, which is directed by agents of the Soviet Government. Our only choice is to impeach President Truman and find out who is the secret invisible government.”  He contended that a communist conspiracy in the State Department was responsible for the fall of China and was a proponent of financial aid for Nationalist forces in China.  In 1950, he famously accused General George Marshall of being a traitor and a friend to communists. In the 1952 campaign, he said that voting for Adlai Stevenson would allow the “Red Network” to operate safely. Even so, Eisenhower did not like him. At a Republican rally in Indianapolis with Eisenhower and Jenner in attendance, Eisenhower voiced support for the Republican ticket but failed to mention Jenner by name. When Eisenhower’s speech was finished, Jenner lept up and hugged Eisenhower so that the press could get pictures of him with Ike. Eisenhower later told Emmet Hughes that he “felt dirty from the touch of the man.”

Jenner did not like the European orientation of the Truman and Eisenhower administrations. He was mad that we gave aid to socialist England and did not support the creation of NATO.  In 1956, he said the Republican Party had been ruined by President Eisenhower. Senator Joseph McCarthy he apparently liked, however. When the Senate moved to censure Senator McCarthy, Jenner stood by him, maintaining that the censure movement was “initiated by a communist conspiracy.”  At the end of 1957, Jenner had had enough. He surprised political observers and party leaders when he announced he would not seek re-election. He returned to his law practice and his interest in the Seaway Corporation, a land development company, as well as his four farms.

During Governor Craig’s term, the General Assembly spent quite a bit of money on school consolidation, phasing out smaller schools and busing students to larger, centralized facilities.  Speaking of small schools, in 1954, Milan High School won the Indiana high school basketball tournament. Indiana had fallen in love with basketball since Nicholas McCay brought the game from James Naismith to Crawfordsville and played that first game against Lafayette in 1894. “In a dark and lonely winter, the gym was a warm, noisy and well lit place. For Indiana, basketball was a godsend.”

Milan and the one-class basketball tournament

Indiana’s one-class basketball tournament started in 1911. A number of things fueled its success: the lack of other forms of entertainment, the introduction of vehicular travel and good roads, Indiana’s multitude of small rural schools, lack of professional teams, and the low barriers to entry — schools didn’t need a big team, rural kids could enjoy the sport even if all they had was a ball and a makeshift hoop.  

The early tournament had a dominant team in the twenties known as the Franklin Wonder Five, winning it all in 1920, 1921, and 1922. The boys on that team had been playing together since they were kids and compiled a 104-10 record in their four years in high school. (Most of the team followed their coach to Franklin College and was dominant on the collegiate level as well.) John Wooden would call their lead scorer, Fuzzy Vandivier, the greatest high school player he had ever seen.

High school basketball would be responsible for some major building projects around the state. In 1928, Butler would propose a 10,000 seat arena — pretty ambitious given that the institution only had a few thousand students. The head of the IHSAA would ask them to expand that number to 15,000 and promised to conduct the high school tournament championship at Butler (later Hinkle) Fieldhouse for at least 10 years. In fact, the championship would take place at Indiana’s Basketball Cathedral until 1971. There was also an arms race among local high schools to construct larger and larger facilities, due to the unassailable logic that — if you had the biggest arena in the area — the tournament games would take place on your home court. Indiana has 14 of the largest 15 gyms (15 of 16 if you count the defunct Anderson Wigwam). North Central Conference schools (or former NCC schools) figure prominently on that list: New Castle, Anderson, Marion, Muncie, Lafayette, Richmond.

During the 1952-53 season, the small school of MIlan had an unusual pool of talent, owing to its junior high program. The team defied the normal pattern of advancing a couple of rounds only to fall to a large, urban school in the regionals. Instead, it won the regionals and semi-state competition, advancing to the final four. They would get blown out by South Bend in the semi-final game, but most of their starting lineup was going to return for the 1953-54 season. So, expectations were high. During the regular season, Milan lost on the road to the much bigger school of Franklin and a surprise loss to Aurora which also had a very good team, but otherwise, Milan more or less cruised. In the sectionals, Milan crushed Cross Plains, Versailles, and Osgood. In the regionals, they beat host Rushville handily and then avenged their loss to Aurora, beating that team 46-38. The first semi-state game found Milan in the unfamiliar position of being the bigger school, playing (and beating) Montezuma who had won its first regional to advance to the semi-state. The second semi-state game was a trickier proposition, playing a Crispus Attucks team with future hall-of-famer, Oscar Robertson. Milan built a lead, then played a lot of keep away, winning by 65-52.

In the state game, they played Terre Haute Gerstmeyer Tech which had also been in the final four the previous year, winning by a score of 60-48. The final game was against powerhouse Muncie Central. It was a defensive battle, the game tied at 26-26 going into the 4th quarter. Early on, Muncie Central put in a pair of free throws taking their first lead since early in the game. Bobby Plump was having a bad shooting night, having gone 2 for 10 from the field. He dribbled to “up over mid-court, pulled the ball up against his stomach, and stood still. Muncie waited, and if you think you gotta have motion to generate excitement, you should have been there. Plump held the ball amidst more noise than you’ll hear in the wildest fast breaking game for four minutes and 14 seconds, and then called time.” After play resumed, Plump shot the ball with 2:55 on the clock. He missed, and Muncie Central got the rebound. However, a bad pass gave the ball back to Milan and they scored, tying the game at 28-28 with 2:12. Plump gave Milan a 30-28 lead with a pair of free throws. Then Gene Flowers tied it again at 30-30 with 48 seconds left. It was then that Bobby Plump and Milan made history, Plump hitting the game winning shot with 3 seconds left and giving Indiana it’s own David versus Goliath legend.

The one-class tournament would continue until 1997. During that time, the Marion Giants — featuring Jay Edwards and Lyndon Jones — matched the Franklin Wonder Five with three consecutive state titles of their own in 1985, 1986, and 1987 (beating my Richmond Red Devils in the ‘85 and ‘87 efforts.) In 1997, the IHSAA decided to move to a class-based system, ending the crown jewel of Indiana sports. (I had the fortune of being in the room at the State House when Bobby Plump testified to a Senate committee in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to get the General Assembly to somehow step in to preserve the one-class basketball tournament.) Bloomington North was the last one-class basketball champion, beating Delta by a score of 75-54. After 81 years of frustration, my Red Devils won a championship just under the wire — beating Lafayette Jefferson in overtime to win the 1991-92 season.

George Craig (1953-1957)  

George Craig is another past Indiana governor whose rise was helped considerably by his involvement in the American Legion. Born in 1909, he was the first governor born in the 20th century. He was raised in Brazil, Indiana; the son of an attorney and a product of the public schools. He went to undergrad at the University of Arizona but, apparently, spent more time drinking than studying. He returned to Indiana to enroll in law school in Bloomington. While there, he was questioned by Dean (and future governor) Paul McNutt about his poor grades at Arizona.  Craig promised to do better and was allowed to enroll. He was a classmate of William Jenner who would later come to be a prominent rival of his within the Republican party.

Craig got his law degree and went home to practice in his father’s firm. Business was light during the Depression, and Craig got involved in politics. He became the chairman of the Clay County Republicans in 1938. During World War II, Craig enlisted with the infantry and commanded a platoon, storming the beach at the Invasion of Normandy. Ultimately, Gray was discharged in 1946 with the final rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

When he returned home, he became involved with the American Legion. (The Legion had become a perpetual organization. Rather than being specific to one war like the Grand Army of the Republic, it was an organization devoted to veterans more generally). Craig became the Clay County Commander in 1947 and, in 1949, he became the national commander of the organization. In that capacity, he continued the acquaintance he had made with Dwight Eisenhower during World War II and gave speeches opposing communism. While Craig denied gubernatorial ambitions, he worked behind the scenes to further them.

He was an outsider to the established Republican leadership in the state and was considerably less conservative than William Jenner who ran the state Republican party. Working under the assumption that party delegates from the previous convention would likely be elected to the next convention, Craig met with hundreds of those people, trying to build support. At the 1951 Republican convention, he was able to beat out the more conservative candidates by the third ballot. One of those conservatives — future governor Harold Handley — was selected as the lieutenant governor candidate.

Craig and Eisenhower were both opposed to the spread of communism, but from the perspective of zealots like Jenner, they were not sufficiently anti-communist enough. Their preference for a measured approach to the problem caused guys like Jenner and McCarthy to label Eisenhower and General Marshall as soft on communism. Jenner also disapproved of Craig’s proposals to spend more state money and initiate more government programs. Eisenhower was very popular, however, and his coattails in the election of 1952 helped propel Craig to a comfortable general election win over his opponent, John Watkins who had been the lieutenant governor in the previous Schricker administration.

Craig had an ambitious agenda but was unable to pass most of it due to his conflicts with Republican Party leaders. At the State House, it was apparently a battle between the pro-Craig faction, the anti-Craig faction, and the Democrats. Craig wanted to consolidate government agencies into fewer departments — this was rejected out of hand as a return to the battle between executive and legislative that had raged for decades but had simmered down in recent years. He was mostly unsuccessful in lobbying for the creation of major new highways because the General Assembly did not want to pay for them, but despite some reluctance, the General Assembly did authorize the creation of the Toll Road in northern Indiana. Toll roads had been abolished decades earlier, and the legislature was concerned about adding new patronage positions controlled by the governor that would accompany toll roads. So, the legislature did not authorize any other toll roads. The General Assembly rejected Craig’s proposals for a new state government office building, new prisons, the expansion of Purdue, and creation of a new harbor on Lake Michigan. However, he did have some successes:

Craig was successful in having the Department of Corrections created, which he used to implement most of his penal reform. The Uniform Traffic Code was also established, which standardized road signs, speed limits, and traffic rules across the state. Funding was also granted to improve safety by installing signage and signal lights around the state. The police academy was expanded and the first narcotics group. The state police force was expanded to add fifty new officers, making it the largest in the nation at the time. The state’s Mental Health Division was also established to reform the state’s mental hospitals.

The General Assembly spent most of its surplus on a measure not favored by Craig: a bonus for people who enlisted to serve in the Korean War. Craig thought such a bonus was misguided, stating, “you can’t put a bonus on patriotism any more than you can on motherhood.”

As governor Craig’s term proceeded, he had some national popularity – being featured in Time Magazine for some of his reforms and being considered as a potential Secretary of the Army by President Eisenhower. However, he continued to battle with his fellow Republicans in Indiana. At one point, he proposed ending the death penalty. Senator Jenner and his faction pointed to this as proof that Craig was no true conservative. Near the end of Craig’s term, it was discovered that three highway commissioners had accepted bribes to influence their decision to accept highway contracts. Lieutenant Governor Handley used this incident to accuse Craig of being culpable in the scandal.

Craig himself was not found to be personally involved in the plot, but was required to testify before a grand jury in 1957, after he left office. When he left the court building, he gave an interview to the press in which he attacked William Jenner and a number of other party leaders for having a political vendetta against him. The scandal and his interview were published around the state and significantly hurt his popularity. In his later years he said that he forgave Jenner for his actions while Craig was governor, and that the two never agreed on anything except the weather.

After his term of office, frustrated with the local Republican Party, Craig left the state. He practiced law and ran an automotive company in Virginia, then moved to Los Angeles and practiced law there for awhile. He returned to Brazil, Indiana in 1967 and finally retired in 1986. Governor Craig passed away in 1992 at the age of 83.

Next time: The Milan Miracle

School Desegregation

In 1949, five years before Brown v. Bd. of Education, the Indiana General Assembly passed a law desegregating Indiana’s schools. The Indianapolis Public Schools had been formally segregated since 1927 when a Klan dominated school board drew dual elementary school boundaries and Crispus Attucks high school was constructed. Protests against segregation gained momentum after World War II. Indianapolis was the largest city in the North with a segregated school system. (Indiana being the “middle-finger of the South thrust up into the north.”) Gary and Elkhart announced firm plans to desegregate, but IPS was standing firm. A desegregation bill was introduced in the legislature in 1947, with the support of the NAACP, labor groups, the Indiana Jewish Community Relations Council, and the Indianapolis Press. The IPS board was opposed, saying it would be too disruptive to their current allocation of resources to various schools and faculty. There was also some talk of respecting “current local practices in race relations.” The desegregation bill failed that year.

The campaign to integrate schools continued after the 1947 General Assembly. The NAACP threatened an injunctive law suit to force integration. Some black students had been transferred to School 32, ostensibly because the black schools those students would have gone to lacked the capacity. A number of white parents kept their kids out of school protesting that their kids were being used as “guinea pigs” for the integration movement. The IPS board was ambivalent.

When the General Assembly reconvened in 1949, the Board no longer openly opposed desegregation. Some groups from the north side of Indianapolis did oppose the desegregation school bill, arguing that legislation “cannot change the social order.” There was also some racist literature from the era of Klan domination in the 20s circulating. Nevertheless, the bill passed the House 58 to 21. In the Senate, it was reported out of committee after Governor Schricker announced his support. It passed the Senate 31-5 with the five negative votes coming from Republicans and thirteen other Republican members walking out rather than voting.

After the legislation was passed, IPS duly began redrawing districts and generally complying with the desegregation requirements. However, this seems to have accelerated white flight to the suburbs and de facto rather than de jure (in fact rather than by law) segregation became the main issue. In Indianapolis, this apparently became known as “the Shortridge problem.” (Which caught my eye, because my Dad went to Shortridge. It’s my understanding that my grandparents lived near the Butler campus but moved around that time — most likely they were part of the white flight.)

Shortridge had, at one time, been ranked one of the twenty-five best high schools in the nation. Kurt Vonnegut, who went there, wrote of Shortridge:

[Shortridge is] my dream of an America with great public schools. I thought we should be the envy of the world with our public schools. And I went to such a public school. So I knew that such a school was possible. Shortridge High School in Indianapolis produced not only me, but the head writer on the I LOVE LUCY show (Madelyn Pugh). And, my God, we had a daily paper, we had a debating team, had a fencing team. We had a chorus, a jazz band, a serious orchestra. And all this with a Great Depression going on. And I wanted everybody to have such a school.

Through the 50s there was a significant influx of black students into Shortridge and a corresponding exodus of white students. By 1963, Shortridge was a majority black school. As this transition was taking place, many white parents asked the school board and administration to do something to reverse the trend. In 1964, a study of “the Shortridge problem” was commissioned. One proposal was to shift two elementary schools that were primarily black and have those students go to Washington or Northwest while, at the same time, taking two elementary schools that were primarily white and sending those students to Shortridge. The white elementary schools had, in the past, been feeders into Shortridge, but started going to Arlington when that school was built. The parents from the primarily black schools were relatively accepting of the proposal. The parents from the white schools were not. That proposal was ultimately dropped. (The linked article above and again here is a graduate thesis by Sophia Nicholas Gonis from 1964 entitled “An Analysis of Desegregation Trends in the Indianapolis Public Schools.”)

Harry Schricker (again) (1949-1953)

After sitting out a term, Harry Schricker ran for re-election and won. Senator Jenner had sought the Republican nomination but, due at least in part, to some bad blood between Jenner and Governor Gates, Jenner lost the nomination to Hobart Creighton. Creighton was a native of Kosciusko County and had served in the Indiana House of Representatives from 1932 to 1948, six years of that as Speaker. Originally, he was a math teacher. But then he went into business with his brother, Russell. First they tried hogs, but the bottom dropped out of the market. Then they went into chickens. During the depression, they managed to keep afloat. Homer remembered, “Luckily feed costs fell faster than egg prices.” They continued to expand and, by 1955, they had “20 farms, ranging from 12 to 320 acres, mostly close to Warsaw. On them [were] 50 modern, 2,600 bird laying houses. They also [had] an egg plant, a 365,000-chick hatchery, a $250,000 feed mill, their own genetics program and, on the side, 1,000 beef cattle to utilize the outdoor pullet runs which must be alternated from year to year.”

Despite Creighton’s business success, his fortunes were not so good during the gubernatorial campaign. Schricker beat Creighton by a healthy margin, 53% to 45%. The Democrats also regained a narrow majority in the Indiana General Assembly.

The Creightons weren’t the only ones prospering during this period. Indiana’s per capita personal income which had lagged far behind the national average up until 1930 began to rise in the late 30s and, exceeded the national average through most of the 40s and 50s. Industrial workers joined the middle-class, often getting a new car when new models came out, , were able to take family vacations, bought television sets, and sent their kids to college. Historian James Madison notes that this came during a period of extensive government intervention which never turned out to be quite as consequential as its proponents hoped or its opponents feared. He also noted that welcoming government intervention was not new to Hoosiers. During the pioneer era, Hoosiers had “allowed and even welcomed significant government intervention.”  Labor unions were also significant during this period. In 1939, over 20% of Indiana’s nonagricultural workers were union members. By the 1970s, that number was 38%. (That’s not to say that labor was necessarily popular in Indiana. The Chamber of Commerce and Republicans who resented labor’s alliance with Democrats often fought the labor movement aggressively.)

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Schricker had taken office in 1949 with a friendly General Assembly, however the Republicans re-took the legislature in the elections of 1950. One measure that caused controversy was legislation that made welfare records open to the public. Specifically, Senate Bill 86 in the 1951 General Assembly provided that the names of welfare recipients and the amounts they received would be filed with the county auditors and could be inspected by the public during regular business hours. This was ostensibly to “tear away the veil of secrecy” from welfare records. Governor Schricker vetoed the bill, but the legislature overrode the veto. The Social Security Administration determined that this was in violation of the rules of the federal program and cut off funding, creating an $18 million budget deficit for the state.

A special session was called by Governor Schricker but the General Assembly was unsuccessful at coming to a resolution that would prevent federal funding from being cut off. What saved the money for Indiana was Congressional effort by Senator Jenner, passing a provision that said states couldn’t lose their money if they made welfare records open to the public. This resulted in a number of other states passing similar provisions.

It doesn’t appear that the efforts to repeal “secrecy” were necessarily worth the effort because, by and large, the public wasn’t interested in knowing. Very few county auditors were approached by anyone wanting to look at the records. Supporters of the public records legislation contended that the mere risk of being exposed prevented welfare “chiselers” from attempting to get on public assistance. The Indianapolis Star was an enthusiastic advocate of this position. It asserted that welfare money was going to “cheats, bums, prostitutes, irresponsible parents, and well-heeled sons and daughters of the aged.” (I can’t help but notice that a lot of those categories are the sorts of people targeted by the White Caps back in the late 19th and early 20th century.)

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A couple of random items here, and I’ll complete Schricker’s term in this post today and have a section next time devoted to “The Shortridge Problem.”

-In 1951, Howdy Wilcox, Jr. founded the Little 500 at IU.   He modeled the race after the Indy 500 which his father had won in 1919. This, of course, would be the basis for the 1979 movie, “Breaking Away” along with too many hangovers to count.

-In 1952, the Indiana Congressional delegation would send 10 Republicans and one Democrat to D.C. The lonely Democrat was Ray Madden from Lake County.  Governor Schricker ran against Senator Jenner for the U.S. Senate seat but was defeated.

-Governor Schricker gave the speech to nominate Adlai Stevenson in the 1952 Presidential campaign at the Democratic National Convention. Schricker would retire to his home in Knox and passed away in 1966.

 

There was change in the air in post-war Indiana.

On July 1, 1945 – Purdue School of Aeronautics and Astronautics was established as separate degree program. Neil Armstrong would graduate in 1955.

The telephone system began using area codes in large cities for connecting long-distance calls between toll switching centers. In 1947, the 812 area code was introduced for southern Indiana and the  317 area code was introduced for the northern two-thirds.

 

The automobile industry was gearing up for post-war changes. Domestic production of automobiles had come to a stop during the war. Studebaker used the marketing slogan, “First by far with a post-war car.”  The flatback trunk and wrap around rear window of its 1947 Starlight Coupe were influential on later cars. However, Studebaker would not be able to withstand the coming industry price war between Ford and GM.

 

 

Kinsey

In 1947, the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction was founded (originally known as the Institute for Sex Research.) The research of Professor Alfred Kinsey was foundational to the institute. Kinsey was an entomologist by training and was convinced that a biological background could help in understanding social phenomena. Kinsey’s research paved the way for a deeper exploration into sexuality among sexologists and the general public. I feel like I have a hard time grasping the actual public knowledge and view of sex prior to Kinsey. To read some of the literature, the understanding was pretty awful and benighted. But, here and there, I feel like there are hints that the general public’s understanding of sexuality was at least somewhat more sophisticated than what showed up in some of the literature. But, in any case, Kinsey was a watershed for public discussion and acceptance of sexuality as something important to both men and women and helped people feel less isolated with respect to a subject that had traditionally been shrouded in secrecy.

Kinsey’s research had its roots in marriage courses that were not unusual in the 1920s and 30s. They were seen as tools for addressing the “marriage crisis” caused by changing social conventions of the time. Women were getting the right to vote, there was public discussion about birth control — separating procreation from sex, and increasing prevalence of “companiate marriage” where romantic love and sexual compatibility were taking priority over financial security and family input. People were getting married later in life. The availability of automobiles were providing young people with increased opportunities to be alone with one another even while the adults in their lives were generally declining to provide accurate information. (I’m not sure where to put this, but the above linked article on Kinsey’s marriage courses mentions that in 1937, Nick’s English Hut was closed at the urging of Dean of Women, Agnes Wells, because it was too close to a church.)

Even before coming to teach the marriage course, however, Kinsey had an opinions about teaching sexuality. In his textbook about methods of teaching biology, Kinsey stated, “Under the guise of science, we too often have sex instruction which is a curious even if a well-intentioned mixture of superstition, religious evaluation, and a mere perpetuation of social custom.” He advocated applying the scientific method to evaluate materials for teaching high school kids about human reproduction.

With respect to the marriage courses, as Kinsey began to learn more from and about his students, his research and lectures began to deviate from the normal marriage course’s focus on how sex could strengthen the marital bond. His approach to understanding human sexuality was the same as his approach to evaluating high school materials on human reproduction — applying the scientific method, in particular striving to use large sample sizes, wide geographic distribution, and data obtained by observation.

As Kinsey discovered the diversity of sexual behavior among undergraduate and graduate students, faculty wives, and heterosexuals and homosexuals in Chicagoand northern Indiana, his lectures opened broad questions about sexuality that the marriage course, with its obvious focus on improving nuptial bonds, was not designed to answer. As changes in the texts of Kinsey’s lectures show, over time he focused less on how a healthy sex life enriches and stabilizes marriage and more on a broad range of human sexual experience. While the question of sex in marriage would remain one focus of Kinsey’s analysis, it would no longer be the only one.

Over the next couple of years, Kinsey’s interests would evolve from a marriage education course into a broader inquiry about human sexuality. In part this evolution was caused by the individual conferences he would have with the students in his class. A lot of the students had the same sorts of questions. Kinsey felt like the research into those questions was scant as compared to research on the sexual behavior of the insects he had studied, and he felt like accurate education would spare people a lot of unnecessary anxiety.

His view of homosexuality was not the traditional one for the era. He said, “biologically, it is still part of the normal sexual picture, and the individual who suffers through the social condemnation which is a result of the branding of the phenomenon as abnormal has the most difficult sexual problem that I know of. It is a phenomenon that society will some day [face] with more objectivity.” Students of the course were generally supportive of its content, but faculty were critical, particularly to the idea of the normality of masturbation and homosexuality.

In the summer of 1940, feeling pressure from IU sociologists, campus physicians, local Christian leaders, and some parents, IU President Herman Wells asked Kinsey to choose one of two courses of action: resign from the marriage course and continue to take the sex histories of students, or continue to teach in the marriage course but allow the IU health center to take over the individual counseling sessions. Kinsey stopped teaching the marriage course and continued his research, and the result would come to be the Kinsey Institute, one of the leading institutions of sex research. Of course, such research still has its opponents. As I write this, one of Indiana’s candidates for governor is Eric Holcomb. Back in 2000, when he was running for state representative, he accused his opponent John Frenz of “supporting bestiality and obscene photographs of children” based on nothing more than Frenz’s vote for the state budget bill which included funding for Indiana University and the Kinsey Institute.

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Finishing up on Governor Gates: he was able to use his influence with the American Legion to get it to move from Washington D.C. to Indianapolis, with office space in the War Memorial. Due to Constitutional limitations, Gates was unable to run for re-election as governor. However, as payback for Jenner’s interference with highway funding, Gates was successful in blocking the nomination of Senator Jenner to run for governor. He resumed his leadership of the state party and had some influence in the national Republican party. He had the chance to run for Vice-President with Robert Taft in 1952 but declined. His reach into Indiana politics was felt up until very recently. One of the last Republican Senators he helped get elected was Richard Lugar. (And this is the point in this series for me at which history begins to stop feeling like something from a remote time and place and begins to start feeling like it has an impact on current events.)

Gates continued to live in the Columbia City home he and his wife had purchased in 1919. He died of natural causes in 1978 at the age of 85.

Ralph Gates (1945-1949)

After twelve years of Democratic Governors, the Republicans regained the executive branch with Ralph Gates in the election of 1944. Gates was born and raised in Columbia City and went to the public schools there. He then went to the University of Michigan where he earned his bachelors and law degree in 1917. That was about the time that the U.S. had entered World War I. Gates enlisted in the Navy where he mostly worked with money — serving in a role helping to manage the payroll and then selling bonds to insure government war assets.

He returned home and worked in his father’s law practice and bank. He also served as a municipal attorney (a type of practice near and dear to my heart) for South Whitley, Columbia City, and Whitley County. In the 20s, upon the advice of his father, he managed to steer clear of the Klan. When the Depression hit, his father’s bank was threatened, but — in It’s a Wonderful Life fashion — they managed to convince depositors not to withdraw deposits, and their bank was one of the few in the area that survived. Following in the footsteps of Paul McNutt, Gates became the Indiana Commander of the American Legion in 1931. In 1941, he became the chairman of the state Republican Party which paved the way to his nomination as the party’s candidate in 1944.

In the general election Gates defeated the Democratic nominee, Samuel Jackson (presumably the individual who briefly served in the Senate serving out the  term of Senator Van Nuys after his death and not the Samuel Jackson who was challenged by snakes on a plane.)

Early in Gates’ term, the Freeman Field Mutiny took place at Freeman Field near Seymour. On April 5th and 6th, 1945, African American members of the 477th Bombardment Group attempted to integrate an all-white officer’s club.

The first group of three officers was turned away by Major Andrew M. White the officer in charge of the club; but later groups were met by the Officer of the Day, First Lieutenant Joseph D. Rogers who was armed with a holstered .45 caliber weapon and who was stationed there on the orders of Colonel Selway. When 19 of the officers, including Coleman Young, entered the club against the instructions of Lieutenant Rogers and refused to leave, Major White put them in arrest “in quarters.” In response to the arrest order, the 19 officers left the club and returned to their quarters. Seventeen more were placed under arrest later that night, including Second Lieutenant Roger C. Terry, whom Lieutenant Rogers claimed had shoved him. The next night, 25 more officers acting in three groups entered the club and were also placed under arrest. Except for the alleged “shoving” incident, there was no use of physical force by anyone on either side. A total of 61 officers were arrested during the two-day protest.

In 1948, Harry Truman would sign an executive order integrating the armed services.

During his term, “Gates oversaw the creation of the departments of revenue, veterans affairs and commerce, and he approved tax hikes on beer, liquor and cigarettes.” The Republican opposition to federal programs apparently had negative repercussions for Indiana when it came to highway construction, despite Gates’ personal support for that particular program. He could not get the General Assembly to come up with matching funds, resulting in Indiana missing out on highway funds and, consequently, struggling with road quality. This put Gates at odds with Senator William Jenner (about whom more later) who had been behind blocking the money. Gates would retaliate by blocking Jenner’s nomination for governor in 1948.

In general, the rise of the Indiana Republican party in the 40s was characterized by a conservatism focused on rolling back FDR’s New Deal and fighting off communists. The progressive Republicans of the late 19th and early 20th century were not ascendant in Indiana.  Jenner was briefly a Senator filling out the term of the Van Nuys seat after his death and then, after a hiatus was elected in his own right to the other Senate seat in 1946, replacing one-term Senator Raymond Willis. In that 1946 race, Jenner defeated former governor Clifford Townsend. (The 1946 elections were good for the Republicans, they took 9 out of the 11 Congressional seats.) Jenner became a great supporter of Joe McCarthy.  Jenner was apparently a conspiracist, stating:

Today the path to total dictatorship in the U.S. can be laid by strictly legal means, unseen and unheard by Congress, the President, or the people. Outwardly we have a Constitutional government. We have operating within our government and political system, another body representing another form of government – a bureaucratic elite. We have a well-organized political-action group in this country, determined to destroy our Constitution and establish a one-party state…. The important point to remember about this group is not its ideology but its organization. It is a dynamic, aggressive, elite corps, forcing its way through every opening, to make a breach for a collectivist one-party state. It operates secretly, silently, continuously to transform our Government without suspecting that change is under way…. If I seem to be extremist, the reason is that this revolutionary clique cannot be understood, unless we accept the fact that they are extremist. It is difficult for people governed by reasonableness and morality to imagine the existence of a movement which ignores reasonableness and boasts of its determination to destroy; which ignores morality, and boasts of its cleverness in outwitting its opponents by abandoning all scruples. This ruthless power-seeking elite is a disease of our century…. This group … is answerable neither to the President, the Congress, nor the courts. It is practically irremovable.

In 1950, Jenner would go on to accuse popular World War II general and Secretary of State, George Marshall as being “a front man for traitors.” In 1956, Jenner would say that the Republicans had been “ruined” by the leadership of Eisenhower. Jenner was supported by the Indiana Farm Bureau, the American Legion, the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, and Eugene Pulliam’s conservative and influential Indianapolis Star and News.

Next time: Sex! (Or, at least the founding of the Kinsey Institute).

Last time we took a look at President Eisenhower’s personal history and some of his foreign policy. Today, we’ll continue on with the foreign policy and discuss some of the domestic issues.

In response to the Suez Crisis of 1956, Eisenhower developed the “Eisenhower Doctrine” declaring that “a Middle Eastern country could request American economic assistance or aid from U.S. military forces if it was being threatened by armed aggression from another state” — particularly another state controlled by international communism. The Suez Crisis had been the invasion of Egypt by Israel, Great Britain, and France. The U.S., the Soviets, and the U.N. forced the invaders to withdraw. The conflict threatened the economically significant Suez Canal. The U.S. response effectively ended Great Britain’s status as a “Great Power.” This was also the period of time during which war in Vietnam was getting started and very gradually drawing in the U.S. Eisenhower realized it would be a quagmire and mostly declined the French requests for aid in the area, but the U.S. helped form the Southeast Treaty Organization (SEATO) which would later be part of the rationale for our large scale military involvement in Vietnam.

In 1956, Eisenhower championed the creation of the Interstate Highway System as necessary to security. Eisenhower had developed an interest in the subject back in 1919 when he was part of the transcontinental convoy. He had also been impressed by the Germany’s Autobahn highways as an asset to national defense.

Others had been working on the development of the highway system for long years before it was ready for Eisenhower’s assistance. The United States Numbered Highway System had been developed primarily in the 1920s through the 40s. These were built primarily by state and local government and they were designated and numbered through coordination among the states. So, they have “U.S.” highway designations but they are not federal highways and are not designed to federal, interstate standards. When the Interstates were built, the U.S. highways were often re-routed along the Interstates or decommissioned entirely. The numbering of the Interstates goes in the opposite direction to the U.S. Highways. (So, the lower U.S. Highway numbers and the higher Interstate numbers are in the east for north/south roads.)

As automobile traffic increased, planners saw a need for such an interconnected national system to supplement the existing, largely non-freeway, United States Numbered Highways system. By the late 1930s, planning had expanded to a system of new superhighways.

In 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave Thomas MacDonald, chief at the Bureau of Public Roads, a hand-drawn map of the United States marked with eight superhighway corridors for study. In 1939, Bureau of Public Roads Division of Information chief Herbert S. Fairbank wrote a report called Toll Roads and Free Roads, “the first formal description of what became the interstate highway system” and, in 1944, the similarly themed Interregional Highways.

Construction of the Interstates began in 1956 and was declared complete with the construction of the stretch of I-70 through Glenwood Canyon in Colorado.

Sputnik

On October 4, 1957, the Soviets  launched Sputnik, marking the beginning of humans in space. Sputnik was a small satellite that was launched into orbit and stayed there until January 4, 1958. People with shortwave radios were able to hear it beeping as it rounded the globe. The launch of Sputnik had a psychological impact on Americans, convincing some that the Soviets had taken or were threats to become the premiere world power. One consequence of Sputnik was the U.S. founding the Advanced Research Projects Agency which, of course, developed ARPANET which, in turn, became the foundation for the Internet. Fear of the Russians was mixed with an enthusiasm for entry into the Space Age.

Eisenhower responded to Sputnik by launching a campaign to fund and strengthen science and higher education learning. He also used it to promote his Open Skies proposal to legitimize the high altitude U2 flyovers the U.S. was conducting in Communist territory. After Sputnik, the Soviets began exaggerating their missile capabilities. This is part of what prompted the U.S. to conduct the May 1960 U2 flyover with Francis Gary Powers as the pilot. Soviet radar and anti-aircraft capabilities were better than the US. believed, and the aircraft was shot down. Another mistake the U.S. made was believing that a pilot could not survive being shot down in a U2 from such an altitude. Powers did survive. But, before the U.S. was aware of that, they went with the cover story, saying that the aircraft was a research flight that had drifted from Turkey with an incapacitated pilot. The Soviets had already captured Powers and obtained a confession that he had been spying. By waiting until the Americans doubled down on the cover story, they ensured that the incident was highly embarrassing to the U.S. The Soviets were also able to learn from the U-2 technology.

On Civil Rights, Eisenhower accelerated the process of desegregating the military. When a Secretary of the Navy suggested mollycoddling Southerner whites and their treatment of blacks, Eisenhower said, “We have not taken and we shall not take a single backward step. There must be no second class citizens in this country.” He stated that he regarded racial discrimination as a national security issue inasmuch as communists used the U.S. history of racial discrimination and violence as a point of propaganda attacks. In 1957, the state of Arkansas refused to comply with the Supreme Court’s order in Brown v. Bd. of Education to integrate its schools. Eisenhower sent in the 101st Airborne to change their minds.

Eisenhower also appointed Earl Warren to the Supreme Court as Chief Justice. Warren had been Governor of California. There was apparently bad blood between Warren and Richard Nixon (also from California), and Nixon supported the nomination because he saw it as a way of getting Warren out of politics. “Eisenhower looked for an experienced jurist who could appeal to liberals in the party as well as law-and-order conservatives, noting privately that Warren ‘represents the kind of political, economic, and social thinking that I believe we need on the Supreme Court … He has a national name for integrity, uprightness, and courage that, again, I believe we need on the Court.’” The Warren Court was groundbreaking and made a number of decisions typically favored by liberals and confounding to conservatives. Among them was Brown v. Bd. of Education (1954) (banning segregation in education), Baker v. Carr (1962) (“one man, one vote” — prohibiting disproportionate representation of rural areas), Gideon v. Wainright (1963) (indigent’s right to a publicly funded criminal defense attorney), Mapp v. Ohio (1961) (excluding evidence obtained from illegal searches), and Miranda v. Arizona (1966) (“You have the right to remain silent”). Recent declines in crime suggest it was just a coincidence, but Warren was blamed for the increase in crime in the 60s and 70s.

Finally, it was under President Eisenhower that we completed our current allotment of states. Alaska was admitted January 3, 1959 and Hawaii 5-0 was admitted August 21, 1959.

Next time, we’ll get started with the Indiana Governors.

Dwight Eisenhower (1953-1961)

Dwight Eisenhower was, of course, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe during World War II. For him, becoming President may have a lighter load than his previous job. He was born in Texas, the third of seven sons, and raised in Kansas. I am told that I am related to Eisenhower on my grandmother’s side. Eisenhower’s maternal grandmother was named Link as was my maternal grandmother. I’m not sure how far up and down the Link chain (sorry) one has to go to connect our families. Obviously we weren’t close!

College was expensive for the Eisenhower family. He made a deal with his brother that one would work and pay for the other’s college. Then they would swap. Dwight worked for two years, putting his brother through college; but was then given the idea to apply to a military academy since it would not require tuition. He asked for consideration at either West Point or Annapolis with his Senator. He did well on the entrance exams but was too old for the Naval Academy and, so, went to West Point. He placed in the middle of the class of 1915 — a class which would ultimately produce 59 general officers.

During World War I, Eisenhower requested positions in Europe but was unsuccessful in obtaining them. Rather, he was stationed in various places in the U.S. However, he showed excellent organizational skills, such as when he commanded a unit that trained tank crews in Pennsylvania. He ended the war with the rank of captain but was promoted to major very shortly after the war. In 1919, he was assigned to a transcontinental convoy that tested vehicles  and highlighted the need for better roads. The convoy averaged only 5 miles per hour from Washington D.C. to San Francisco, and the need for better roads would later become a signature issue of his.

In 1932, Eisenhower was an aide to General MacArthur and participated in the clearing of the Bonus Army protesting at the White House. Eisenhower was apparently against the action and MacArthur’s getting involved with it, but later wrote the official incident report, endorsing MacArthur’s actions. In 1935, Eisenhower accompanied MacArthur to the Philippines. The two apparently had philosophical disagreements about leadership qualities that an American army officer should exhibit and develop in his subordinates. This created some level of antipathy between the two and likely helped Eisenhower manage difficult personalities during World War II, but Eisenhower said the relationship remained positive. Eisenhower respected MacArthur as having a brilliant military mind but disliked his vanity and penchant for theatrics.

In 1941, just before the onset of American participation in World War II, Eisenhower was promoted to brigadier general. World War II and Eisenhower’s involvement in it is far too vast a subject for me to deal with here in any depth, but in December 1943, President Roosevelt appointed Eisenhower to be the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe. In this position, he planned the invasion of Normandy during Operation Overlord which led to the liberation of Europe from the Nazis. The Germans surrendered on May 7, 1945. Following the surrender, Eisenhower became Military Governor of the U.S. Occupation Zone in Germany. When concentration camps were discovered, Eisenhower ordered that the conditions be filmed. Those films were used as evidence during the Nuremberg Trials. He made efforts to supply civilians in post-war Germany with food and medicine; generally attempting to treat the civilians as victims, not villains while — at the same time — purging the country of Nazis. In November, 1945, Eisenhower was appointed as Chief of Staff of the Army where one of his main duties was demobilizing the military.  Initially, Eisenhower was optimistic about the chances for friendly relations with the Soviets following the war. But, by 1947, he agreed with containment as the best policy for dealing with the Soviets.

In 1948, Eisenhower passed on running for President. (Truman apparently approached Eisenhower and offered to run as Eisenhower’s running mate on the Democratic ticket if MacArthur was nominated to the Republican ticket.) Instead, Eisenhower became President of Columbia University. His memoir “Crusade in Europe” written during this time was a financial success. His other activities took him away from Columbia for extended periods of time and resentment built in some quarters that he was an absentee university president.

In 1952, both parties courted him as a Presidential nominee, and he eventually declared himself a Republican. Because he defeated the right wing, conservative Robert Taft, Richard Nixon was appointed as his vice-president to appease that wing of the party. “Nixon also provided a strong anti-communist presence as well as some youth to counter Ike’s more advanced age.” His campaign stressed “Korea, Communism and corruption” as themes, attacking the policies of the Roosevelt and Truman administration. But, it was likely Eisenhower’s personal appeal that drove his victory. His campaign slogan was the famously simple, “I like Ike.” He beat Adlai Stevenson in a landslide: 442 to 89.  

“Eisenhower’s cabinet, consisting of several corporate executives and one labor leader, was dubbed by one journalist, ‘Eight millionaires and a plumber.’” Eisenhower described himself as a “progressive conservative.” He expanded Social Security and continued integration of the military begun under Truman. The progressive part of that equation seems to have been the stronger half. In 1954, the GOP was losing ground and in danger of losing its Congressional majorities. He blamed the old-guard conservatives. Eisenhower said, “I have just one purpose … and that is to build up a strong progressive Republican Party in this country. If the right wing wants a fight, they are going to get it … before I end up, either this Republican Party will reflect progressivism or I won’t be with them anymore.”

In 1953, Eisenhower oversaw an armistice in the Korean War. In this, he was aided by his military reputation and the death of Stalin. Once Stalin was dead, the Soviet hardline in support of China weakened, China weakened in turn, and an armistice was signed that drew the line between North and South Korea along approximately the same boundary as in 1950. Eisenhower had concluded that total war in the nuclear age was unthinkable and limited war unwinnable.

In August of 1953, Eisenhower authorized the CIA to overthrow the government of Iran and install the Shah, thereby increasing the strategic control of oil in the region by the U.S. and Great Britain. Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddegh sought to audit the Anglo-Iranian Oil company and limit its control over Iran’s petroleum reserves. The British sought and received U.S. assistance in getting rid of Mosaddegh in Operation Ajax, an operation involving Theodore Roosevelt’s grandson, Kermit Roosevelt, Jr. which ultimately returned the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to power. In 1979, the Shah was overthrown by the Ayatollah Khomeini which has had a significant impact on our relationship to the Middle East today.  

Next time: We’ll continue on with President Eisenhower, more of his foreign policy, and his domestic policies.

Truman supported domestic policies that came to be known as the “Fair Deal,” significant among which were civil rights legislation which he regarded as a moral priority and universal health care. These were not well received by the Republican Congress elected in 1946 or even by the Democrats when they retook Congress in 1948: Southern conservatives — Democrats at the time — can be relied upon to be on the wrong side of history.

In foreign affairs, Truman was a Wilsonian, supporting the creation of the United Nations and took a hard line on the USSR and communism. He promoted the Marshall Plan — funneling huge sums of money to rebuild Europe — using the argument that communism flourishes in economically deprived circumstances. After the War, Berlin was divided into American, French, English, and Soviet sectors. But the whole city was in the Soviet occupied zone of Germany. In 1948, the Soviets blockaded Berlin. Rather than risk war by simply driving troops over land to supply Berlin, the western nations conducted the Berlin airlift, a massive operation delivering food and supplies like coal by air. After about a year, the Soviets relented and Truman’s reputation was enhanced. In 1948, Truman also recognized the State of Israel against the advice of his Secretary of State, George Marshall who felt it would risk access to Saudi oil, weakening the U.S.’s ability to resist the USSR. Truman later wrote of his decision, “Hitler had been murdering Jews right and left. I saw it, and I dream about it even to this day. The Jews needed some place where they could go. It is my attitude that the American government couldn’t stand idly by while the victims [of] Hitler’s madness are not allowed to build new lives.”

The election of 1948 was challenging for the Democrats. The northern Democrats proposed a strong civil rights plank of which Truman supported. He also adopted executive orders integrating the military and federal agencies. Southern conservatives objected. Strom Thurmond splintered and ran on a Dixiecrat ticket. On the left, former Vice-President Henry Wallace ran on the Progressive ticket. The Republican’s Thomas Dewey came to be seen as inevitable. However, Truman campaigned hard and Dewey’s support was probably overstated by polls with sampling problems and which were not taken close enough to the election. The picture of Truman holding up the “Dewey Defeats Truman” headline has become iconic. Truman won 303 electoral votes to Dewey’s 189 and Thurmond’s 39.

In 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea. Truman urged the U.N. to intervene which it did, with General Douglas MacArthur in command. U.S. troops under the U.N. flag poured into Korea and responded to North Korea’s invasion of South Korea by invading North Korea. They pushed the North Koreans back, heading toward the border with China. However, they were caught off guard when the Chinese attacked, and the UN forces were pushed back to the 38th parallel — about where things were before the North Koreans invaded. MacArthur wanted to attack within the borders of China, but Truman did not want to escalate the war, fearing this would lead to direct conflict with the Soviets. MacArthur tried to go around Truman’s back and promoted his plan to the Republican House leader who leaked it to the press. Truman fired MacArthur which was politically very unpopular.

I fired him [MacArthur] because he wouldn’t respect the authority of the President … I didn’t fire him because he was a dumb son of a bitch, although he was, but that’s not against the law for generals. If it was, half to three-quarters of them would be in jail.

The war continued on for two years as a stalemate with 30,000 Americans killed. The fighting ended in 1953.

The Cold War got going in a big way. Truman approved for a plan that “called for tripling the defense budget, and the globalization and militarization of containment policy whereby the U.S. and its NATO allies would respond militarily to actual Soviet expansion. . . . for partial mobilization of the U.S. economy to build armaments faster than the Soviets, . . .  for strengthening Europe, weakening the Soviet Union, and for building up the U.S. both militarily and economically.” The NATO treaty was approved by the Senate in 1949 with the U.S., Britain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Norway, Denmark, Portugal, Iceland, and Canada being the original signatories. In response, the Soviets formed the Warsaw Pact with communist members of central and eastern Europe.

In 1949, the nationalist Chinese forces fell to Mao Tse Tung and the communists and, the same year, the Soviets developed an atomic bomb. Americans were nervous about the Communists, and Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee got Congress active in the Second Red Scare. They conducted character investigations of “American communists” (actual and alleged), and their roles in (real and imaginary) espionage, propaganda, and subversion favoring the Soviet Union—in the process revealing the extraordinary breadth of the Soviet spy network in infiltrating the federal government; the process also launched the successful political careers of Richard Nixon, Robert Kennedy, and Joseph McCarthy. Some of the Red Scare was exacerbated by a turf war between J. Edgar Hoover in the FBI and the CIA.

Truman appointed four Supreme Court Justices, one of whom was Indiana’s Sherman Minton. The New York Times said that Minton’s appointment was an example of cronyism and favoritism for an unqualified candidate. (Indiana Senator William Jenner unsuccessfully led the opposition to his confirmation.)

During Truman’s term, the 22nd Amendment was passed limiting Presidents to two terms. Truman himself was grandfathered and was eligible for a third term. In fact, he allowed his name to be put in nomination in New Hampshire, but he was unpopular at this point and did not do well. He announced at that point that he was not seeking the Presidency, and Adlai Stevenson of Illinois got the nomination. Truman had reached out to Eisenhower to gauge his interest in being the Democratic nominee, but Ike — a long-time military man and, therefore, not a regular member of either party —  was more interested in the Republican nomination.